Polling data shows Bernie Sanders would trounce Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and win in a landslide if the election was held today and he was on the ticket.
New aggregated poll data from hundreds of polls nationwide have delivered Clinton and Trump the lowest favorable ratings of presidential candidates since polls began 30 years ago.
Clinton’s favorability rating has slumped to 41% among all eligible voters, according to the Huffington Post, while Trump’s remains steady at a low 36%.
Sanders meanwhile has surged to his highest favorable rating of the election season. His 53.4% favorable rating is so far ahead of both candidates it suggests that he would trounce them both and win the election in a landslide if it was held today.
The massive disparity in nationwide popularity also lends credence to the idea that had the Democratic National Committee not illegally “put their finger on the scale” for Clinton – as exposed in the WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 emails – then Sanders would have won the nomination.
Clinton’s rise in unpopularity follows continued focus on her use of a private email server and alleged conflicts of interest regarding the Clinton Foundation while she served as secretary of state. This metric rose among some of her core support groups, including women, postgraduates, Hispanics and liberals.
The favorable rating is one of the most basic measures of a public figure’s popularity. Clinton’s and Trump’s historic low scores raise uncertainties about voter turnout in the November election, as the most popular candidate by far, Sanders, is not on the ticket.
The open question is whether they can motivate their supporters to show up at the polls on Election Day. The high unfavorable ratings may mean that voters will be more motivated by their opposition to the candidate they dislike the most rather than their support of any candidate.